Lyth looked good making a century at Headingley against NZ, but heāll come under savage pressure if he doesnāt make a score second time around. Would be interesting to see what they do then. Hales would be the bold choice. Heās been making runs in Championship too. Would be an affirmation of their commitment to attacking cricket for sure.
If they drop Ballance, they could and probably should promote Root to three. Bairstow has been banging in the runs for Yorkshire and won them the last ODI against NZ so would be the obvious choice to bat at five then. Alternatively, could bring Moeen back up the order and play Rashid at eight.
In terms of personnel, not a huge amount. I know he got himself out playing a ridiculous stroke today, but Root is their best batsman and should be batting at 3. Moeen Ali should be batting much higher up the order as well.
I havenāt seen too much of this test so far, only the last 15 overs yesterday and Englandās 29 overs today. England failed miserably to deal with the inevitable new ball barrage but after the fourth wicket went down in the 11th over and the new ball began to lose its shine, it looked a fairly docile enough wicket by stumps. England are in a hole, thereās no arguing with that, but Day 3 tends to be the best batting day at Lordās and if they can keep their heads can still put themselves in a position to get a draw here.
Yeah. Iām a bit of an old schooler on technology. The burden of proof is definitely higher when you have video evidence.
I think itās the right call ultimately but itās actually next to impossible to distinguish ball from glove when he touches the ground and you just go on the assumption that the dark mass is ball and thereās no finger under it.
Would he have definitely been given out on review? He was out obviously, but it wasnāt the most conclusive edge ever. Would that snickometer thing on its own be enough for the decision? It was very hard to see the deviation in the ball flight from the angles I saw.
Between the visual of a bit of deviation, a small hotspot and the snicko, it would almost certainly have been enough together to overturn the decision.
Cook falls in the exact same manner as Stokes, just before the new ball. Australia will be looking to clean up the last three wickets fairly quickly now.
Yeah, England really needed Cook to hang around a bit longer to see off the new ball. Similarly, I would expect Australia to bowl England out for less than 300 now. Interesting to see what Clarke will do in respect of the follow on. Ideally, heād like to put on a quick 200/250 but with rain forecast for tomorrow that might cloud his thinking. It still looks a reasonably good batting wicket and with the Australia bowlers likely to have spent about 90 or so overs in the field, they might want to rest up for a while.
All out, lead of 254. Theyāre choosing to bat again unsurprisingly. Rain permitting, Iād say Clarke will be aiming to be bowling very soon after lunch tomorrow.
